The Under Demigods
by Toa Lapaka
Summary: Unknown? unheard? unloved? This is how Arthur Psyches, Helen Vena, and Rod Pyre feel. That is before they set off on there own quest. But with no experience and no help, can they survive? Co-authored by eMMeD
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: ToaLapaka: it's here, the thing you've been waiting for since eMMeD posted that it was coming all of twenty minutes ago. The Under Demigods!**

**eMMeD:Witty, Lapaka. He worked on that for a full twenty minutes, ladies and gentlemen. **

**ToaLapaka: yes, waiting for FanFiction to work right (it never did).**

**eMMeD: I hope some of my readers will come and read this. This first chapter is written by ToaLapaka, but the next one will be written by me.  
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**Disclaimer: Neither one of us are Rick Riordan. If we were, this would be in book form (and probably have a better title)**

ARTHUR-1

Camp Begins

First, I don't want to be a half-blood. It's really not something you really ask to be. Keep that in mind while you read this. Second, I never led a quest before, so if my decisions seem stupid, it's because of lack of experience.

Winter break started out okay, I guess. I mean when you live year round at Camp Half Blood, the seasons start losing all meaning. The only thing I had going for me was my mom had finally claimed me, but even that wasn't that good of news. I guess I owe Percy something, I mean if it wasn't for him, I'd still be rotting in Hermes cabin. But being in the Athena Cabin wasn't that great either. Sure it was less crowded and I actually got my own bunk, but have you ever been stuck in a cabin all year with a bunch of brainiacs? Apparently when my mom thought me into existents, she wasn't thinking very hard. The only good thing about the seasonal breaks was that my best friend, Rodney Pyre (but everyone calls him Rod), came to camp.

But wait, you still have no idea who I am. My name is Arthur Psyches, I'm fourteen-years-old, and you know my mom is Athena. My dad… well let's not talk about him right now. I first came to camp during the winter of _Titan's Curse_, as the other campers called it, but I didn't get claimed until Percy set the age limit. One of the old past times at the Hermes cabin was guessing who the undetermined kids belonged to, but that's changed since the age limit. I was guessed to be almost every minor gods' kid, Hermes, even Hades once (because of my sunny outlook on life). See I never told anyone about my dad, and I never knew the woman I called mom was actually my step mom, but I knew she hated me for some reason. I never showed any Athena level excellence in any of the activities. I was sort of good at art and crafts, pretty good at strategy games, when I got a chance to play them. Of course my dyed black hair also detracted from any suspicions that I was an Athena kid. I have multiple reasons for keeping my hair dyed black, but I won't go into those right now.

Now onto Rod. Rod is rather tall and lanky, the exact opposite of all the rest of his half-blood siblings. He had buffed up a bit from when he first joined, but he's still pretty skinny. He has brown hair and green eyes. He joined camp at the same time I did. Apparently, Hephaestus is better about claiming his kids than Athena. Rod was claimed a few weeks after he joined. Most of the campers thought he would be the first brown-headed Athena kid, but most campers guessed correctly that he was a son of Hephaestus, and some thought that Zeus had fallen off the bandwagon again creating Rod. See, Rod is fascinated with electricity. In fact, when he had been confirmed as one of Hephaestus' kids, he made this awesome crossbow that shot electrified arrows. His mom was still alive, and not evil, so he lived with her most of the year. From what I heard, she's pretty awesome. She'd have to be to keep him away from Camp Half Blood. He loves this place; I mean where else could he get access to a fully functional forge.

He and I became friends during the first week we were at camp. And it was definitely not because we have anything in common. He's completely pro-gods, but I'm anti-gods. In fact the only reason I give offerings and toast to the gods is because Rod reminded me that they would probably blast me out of existence if I didn't.

Anyways, I waited at the edge of the camp's barrier for Ms. Pyres blue Saturn to drive up. Rod had tried to convince her to switch to another car considering that we had been in a giant war with the Greek version of Saturn, the Titan Kronos. It just didn't seem right that she was driving around with his Roman name on her car.

Finally, I saw Rod's car drive up at the base of the hill. He gave his mom one last goodbye hug as I ran down to meet him. He was wearing a Camp Half Blood T-shirt and his favorite Pittsburg Steelers hat.

"Rod!" I yelled down at him.

"Arthur!" he gave me a wide smile and ran up to meet me. "So, how many people have you annoyed since I've been gone?" he asked jokingly.

"Oh, only a few dozen," I responded, still laughing.

"You're going light this year." We walked up the hill to the cabins. Instead of just having the regular U-shaped Olympian cabins, it was now a triangle, with new cabins for Hades and all the minor gods, or at least all that we could remember. I looked over the minor god cabins; there were Hecate, Iris, Hypnos, Hebe, and Nemesis. I look over at Rod; he was still staring at Hecate cabin.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

"What?" he looked at me like he had just come out of a daze. The only people I've ever seen staring at buildings are my siblings and Rod. He would stop a giant machinery stare like it was Aphrodite cabin after the Stoll brother's mango prank. Trust me, if you saw shoes, purses, locks of hair, and the occasional young camper flying out of a cabin, you would stare. "Oh, nothing, let me drop my stuff off, and then let's go to the forge, I've been dying to get back to my work." I wanted to keep pushing, but he started running to Hephaestus cabin.

After Rod dropped off his bags, we headed to the forge. The heat of the forge was welcomed after the cold winter weather outside. We worked our way through the heat and oppressive smoke to Rod's work bench. It was littered with half-finished project, a small remote control chariot, a Greek battle helmet with two small radars sticking out from the top with a red tinted visor over the eyeholes, and… well you get the picture. Rod picked up the beginnings of a sword, grabbed a hammer, and started pounding the metal. "What happened to Beckendorf's dragon?" he asked, never looking up from his project.

"What?" I asked, somewhat surprised that he had noticed it was missing.

"The bronze dragon that guards the camp, where is it?"

"Oh, well you see…" I really didn't want to tell him about the Hephaestus cabin curse.

"Rod, Is that you," called Carl Fouler, another Hephaestus kid. He was a short guy with red hair, which was singed at the edges and looked like he had been on the wrong end of an explosion (which he probably had been). He was covered in soot, and he smelled of burnt metal.

"Carl, what happened to you?" Rod asked.

"Hephaestus cabin curse strikes again, bro."

"Hephaestus cabin curse?"

"You didn't hear bro? Our cabin's cursed. Everything we make just blows up or falls apart."

"Oh come on, you're not telling me you actually believe our cabin's cursed."

"It's true," I said, "It all started when Beckendorf's dragon went rogue and ran out into the woods."

"Wait, there's a huge, thousand-pound dragon roaming around in the woods, and we can't find it?" Rod asked, I could tell he wasn't taking this seriously.

"Dude, every time we send someone out to get it, it roasts them like marshmallows. It's like Beckendorf is haunting us, man," Carl answered.

"Oh come on," Rod laughed.

"Laugh all you want, but when your inventions blow up in your face, don't say I didn't tell you so." With that Carl walked back to his own work bench. Rod went back to pounding his sword.

"He's telling the truth," I said.

"You believe Carl?" He laughed, "He's not the most trust worthy person when it comes to the supernatural."

"That true," I thought back to the time when Carl had sworn his work bench was haunted because all his projects kept moving over night. It turned out it was a mouse that had been going for the grilled cheese sandwiches he left there daily. "But it's not just him. Nobody in Hephaestus cabin has been able to build anything for months. And you saw what happened to Jake."

He kept silently pounding at his sword. "I got to meet up with the rest of my cabin. Archery is starting soon, and Malcolm will be mad if I'm late."

"Malcolm? Where's Annabeth?" He asked, still not looking up from his project.

"Long story," I said, trying to get out of the forge, "Percy's missing, everyone's looking for him, and Hera sent Annebeth a dream telling her to go to the Grand Canyon, got to go, bye." That apparently got his attention; because he finally looked up from his sword and said, "What?"

"See you later," I called back as I left the forge.

I started running to my archery class, when I saw her, Kayla Austin, daughter of Apollo. She was beautiful; she had a perfect tan, stunning blond hair with brown streaks which was pulled back into a ponytail, and her eyes were light brown. She was wearing a Camp Half Blood T-shirt and skinny jeans, and stood in front of the lake so the light caught in her are beautiful golden hair. I stopped and stared for a while, until I heard another girl's voice.

"Gaia to Arthur, Gaia to Arthur; come in Arthur." she said.

"What? Oh, it's just you Helen." Helen was a daughter of Hecate. She had short red hair and dark brown eyes. She had been my friend when I first came to camp, but I barely saw her after she was claimed. "And just because we're half-bloods doesn't mean you need to replace every modern saying with something that relates to the Greek mythology".

"But you say what the Hades," she reminded me.

"Yeah but that's different."

"How?" She asked.

"Look, as much as I'd love to stay here in and argue with you, I have got to get to archery before…" just then the late conch shell blew. "Oh great, now Malcolm is going to get on my case. See you, Helen."

I ran to archery and tried to sneak into the line without being noticed, but it didn't work. Malcolm spotted me and called me out to see him. Great, just when my day was going so well. I walked over to Malcolm, muttering Greek curse words under my breath as I went.

"Do you enjoy making us wait?" Malcolm asked as I drew near. I took in a deep breath, trying to keep my temper in check.

"I'm sorry, Malcolm," I said through gritted teeth, better to apologize and get on with it. Malcolm raised an eyebrow. Gods, I hate it when he is in charge.

"And why were you late this time?" Malcolm asked.

"Rod just got here. I had to catch him up on the recent events," I said. I looked over my shoulder to where the other Athena campers were waiting, each with a bow in hand. "Look, you can interrogate me later. Like you said, everyone's waiting." Malcolm looked like he was ready to argue, but I did not see how he could. Athena kids don't usually combat logic. Either way, I didn't give him a chance to respond. Instead, I just walked to the archery area. Malcolm finally seemed to give in and stalked after me. I picked up a bow and took aim. I shot a few arrows, completely missing the target. Little did I know that the next big prophecy was about to begin.

Rod and I were walking to our next activities. Of course, Rod wanted to know what I had been talking about in the forge. I told him about Percy Jackson's disappearance, how in only three days he had everyone looking for him, and threw in a small joke about Calypso's Island, that would've gotten me angry look from almost any other camper. Then I told him about the gods locking themselves away from us for the past few weeks, which was perfectly fine by me. However, Rod got a worried look on his face. "You know this means something big is happening."

"Or maybe Percy just annoyed them one to many times," I suggested.

"The gods wouldn't do something so petty," He insisted.

"Oh they wouldn't? What about the story of Echo? Or Cassandra? Or…"

"Ok I get the picture. But still…" before finish his sentence, a bright light flashed over the lake behind us. Before we knew it a giant chariot came plummeting into the lake. Canoeing campers yelled and tried desperately to row away from the falling mass. We stood in awe of the giant chariot wreck. Five demi-gods, who had been flipped out of the chariot as it fell, came staggering out of the lake. The first kid to come out had a Hispanic tone to his skin; he had curly black hair, with dark brown eyes. The Second kid had blond hair, a small scar over his lip, and blue eyes. The girl of the group was Native American, and had choppy black hair. She had a hard time getting out of the water, so much so the Nyads had to help her out. Don't misconstrue my close observation. I remember every face I see in great detail; it's a son of Athena thing. It's good sometimes, but when I see real ugly face, well, you can see how that would be bad. I recognized the other two instantly, Annabeth, my older 'sister', and Butch, son of Iris, but the other three were complete strangers. Will Solace stomped over yelling at Annabeth about him letting her borrow his chariot, not destroy it. Drew made a comment about being worth the trouble. She seemed rather unimpressed by the new arrivals. Annabeth was organizing guides for them, when above the Hispanic kids head, appeared a flaming hammer.

**eMMeD: Okay, so at the end of each chapter Lapaka and I will issue a new challenge to you readers. This week is by whatever means possible, try to figure out what cabin we would be in if we_ were_ demigods. You can check out our other stories, profiles, whatever you want to figure out what cabin you would place us in. All people get a shout out in the next chapter.**

**ToaLapaka: yeah if we were demigods... I-I mean were not actual demigods... uh... um... is it hot in here or just me. Anyways, please Read and Review, not just to give us your answer.**

**eMMeD: Real discrete there, Lapaka, real discrete.  
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	2. Chapter 2

**Toa Lapaka: Come on eMMeD, where are you?**

**eMMeD: *panting* I'm here, I'm here!**

**Toa Lapaka: What took you so long?**

**eMMeD: Sorry, but I had to fight off a pack of hell hounds here**

**Toa Lapaka: and that took you 3 months?**

**eMMeD: Only one! (and a week)**

**Toa Lapaka: at least your done now. Helen's gonna be mad at you for taking so long. **

**eMMeD: Toa! Now without further ado, Chapter 2.  
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**Helen-2**

**Rachel does the Zombie Walk**

I am…

1. Excited

2. Anxious

3. Impatient

4. Redundant

5. And wishing I was an only child

This was an exercise I did every day. My form of a daily journal, but lately the last one was always the same. This was because usually by the time I hit **I AM #5**, Lou Ellen was breathing down my neck.

"What is it this time?" I said, attempting to keep my voice steady, holding back my rage. Now usually I'm a calm person, but there is something about my sister that gets under my skin. It makes me want to curse my mom, something I would never actually do for fear of being turned into a toad. Mom loves toads.

Why would I curse my mom who is, by the way, the goddess of magic? Because she poofed Lou Ellen into existence first, thus making her the cabin leader, my slave driver. Oh, and how Lou Ellen loves her position.

"_Someone_ needs to help Morgan with her cleaning magic," Lou Ellen said, tucking a small piece of auburn hair behind her left ear. There was no doubt who that _someone_ was, but it was fun to rile Lou Ellen anyways. I put on my most innocent face, and tried to look nonplussed.

"Oh, well, I'm sure you can handle it. I don't know why you find it necessary to tell me all this," I said, "You are the cabin leader."

"No, I need you to do it. You are so much better at cleaning magic than I am," Lou Ellen said, and I attempted not to roll my eyes. For those of you who don't know Lou Ellen vernacular, let me translate:

"_No, I am as usual taking advantage of my position and making you do all the tedious things. You are the far better maid."_

Now, maybe that isn't the exact translation, but it is a good paraphrase.

"But, Lou Ellen, Rod's coming in today. I was hoping to meet him when he got here," I said to Lou Ellen, knowing it would make no difference. She gave me a faux-sympathetic look.

"Helen, you need to pull your weight around the cabin," Lou Ellen said. Now I was steamed, and I could feel my cheeks flush. Pull _my _weight? I pulled both mine and hers on a daily basis!

"Kellen would have let me go!" I challenged. Lou Ellen glared at me, dropping all sweet pretense.

"I'm not Kellen," she growled and turned from me. There was the root of our problem- Kellen. Kellen was our brother… _was_ as in past tense. He died during the Titanomachy, and Lou Ellen thinks I could have prevented it. Sometimes I agree with her. I was right there… I could have…

Anyways, ever since Kellen died, Lou Ellen has come down on me hard. We used to be close too. The three of us. Not anymore though. Lou Ellen grabbed up her archery gear and yelled at Harry and Nicholas that if they did not come NOW they were going to miss sword fighting lessons with Sherman from Ares. "I'm going to the archery range," Lou Ellen said to no one in general, and then she was gone.

Morgan, one of the younger three, looked at me expectantly. She had the usual coloring of a Hecate kid-red hair, hers a dark auburn like mine, and eyes that were a dark blue to a light lilac depending on our mood. Morgan was only seven, but she was already the clear leader of the youngers, like Kellen had been ours. "Lou Ellen said you would help me."

"Well, we wouldn't want to let Lou Ellen down," I said with biting sarcasm, "Where d'you wanna start?"

"The beds, that's hard," Morgan said. I nodded, knowing that all cleaning magic seemed hard alone especially at age seven, but if Nick and Harry had been here, they would have been done in five minutes. I shake my head. It had been Kellen who suggested that we do chores without the help of our other two. It was supposed to help us strengthen our individual magic. Guy was a genius. Gods, I missed him.

"If you grab your wand, I'll show you some tricks," I said, attempting a small smile. My mouth felt rusty. I hadn't smiled in a few days. Morgan grabbed up her hazel stick, and we started another long, exhausting day of cleaning.

XXXXX

Three hours, three hours! It hasn't taken me three hours to clean something in years. Morgan was so particular too! Really? Who uses magic to fold socks? Morgan , that's who. Finally, after we folded the last pair of socks, I was free.

Within five seconds, I had rushed out of Hecate cabin, not even giving Morgan time to remark on how dusty the tops of the bookshelves were. That girl had problems. I looked down at my watch, bracing myself. Three hours at least, like I mentioned earlier.

So much for meeting up with Rod.

By now he would be completely immersed in his work, attempting to prove the curse wrong. For a second I consider watching. It would probably be funny, but I decide that that is cruel and don't go to the forge. So giving up all hope of meeting Rod I headed down to the canoeing lake to meet the rest of my cabin. I had almost reached the lake when I saw Arthur, Rod's best friend, drooling over some girl from Apollo cabin. I…

[What? You already told this part? So I can't tell them that I could literally see a… Okay, okay I'll move on to the next part in my story.]

I had just finished washing all the lake junk out of my hair, thanks to my sister's idea of fun. When we had reached the deepest part of the lake, Lou Ellen used a wave spell to tip my canoe. She swore that it wasn't her, like I believed it. I walked back to get my stuff from the canoeing docks, and just when I bent over to pick up my things, a giant wave crashed into me sending me back five feet.

"Very funny, Lou Ellen!" I yelled, readying a hex to place on that pain in the-

[Really, Rod, I was going to say neck!]

When I turned around and saw the hunk of twisted, smoking metal that used to be the flying chariot. _Maybe this one wasn't Lou Ellen's fault_, I mentally conceded.

[Psyches! You take all the good parts! Aha! I know exactly what part _I'll _take!]

Now, since Arthur has already taken everything I'll just skip to later on. So you know all about Jason, Piper, and Leo… and I personally cannot give you much information on them. I didn't see them again after the lake incident for quite a while.

By the time that Piper had been saved by naiads, I was familied out, so I headed over to the only place no one in their right mind would go for fun, the Climbing Wall. The only ones who do are Satyrs and Ares kids, and if you don't bother Ares kids they don't bother you. I spent until seven out by the Climbing Wall, and, no, I didn't just climb up and down. I worked on my magic, which is not that strong to tell you the truth. Sure, I can do the little things, like clean a room, but even that I need a wand for. I've always been more of a potioneer. Lou Ellen can do anything with a wand, and Kellen was always better with hand magic.

Well, I was working on my magic until I saw Arthur creeping by. I'll just tell you that Psyches fails at "sneaking." He lurches over strangely and shuffle-runs, which is as weird to watch as the word shuffle-run sounds. Maybe it comes from sitting behind a boiling, climbing rock for nearly five hours while attempting to make nonexistent items appear, but I was bored. Right now my only form of entertainment was watching "Sneaking" Arthur, so I decided to follow him.

At a distance I followed behind him, expecting him to turn one way or another, but he didn't. "Where are you going, Arthur?" I murmured. He couldn't be going where I thought he was going, but he was. Arthur ducked into the forest and I had to move at quicker pace to keep him in sight. Psyches really was crazy! No one goes into the forest alone, unless it's against their will, especially not at night. He walked through the underbrush and trees as if he had done it a thousand times. He kept walking until he reached a large tree. He leaned against it and pulled out a small object from his pocket, a ring. He looked it over and then threw it on the ground. _Okay, _I thought, _it's just Psyches being weird Psyches. _I began to turn around, but then I heard a loud crack coming from behind Psyches. He obviously heard it, because he turned around quickly and pulled out his celestial bronze pocket knife.

"Who's there?" He called. Another loud crack sounded. He looked around on the ground frantically. He picked up his discarded ring and slipped it on his finger. He had a fierce look on his face, like the type of look you see when a wolf is cornered. Arthur was going to fight anyone who came in his path, and I was glad that I was hidden behind this bush. Arthur twisted the ring on his finger, a nervous gesture I guess. He looked around him with wild eyes and turned 270°, stopping just before he reached me. He froze suddenly and then exhaled in relief. "Rachel," he stated.

The new oracle stumbled out from behind a tree. I almost didn't recognize her because she was wearing a skirt and not her iconic marker-covered jeans, but her hair gave her away. She was the only person I knew who had even redder and bushier hair than I did. She walked forward strangely, and I had only ever seen a walk like that once before. It was during my first winter here. We had just lost a game of capture the flag to the hunters of Artemis and the last oracle, who had been a hundred year old carcass, came walking through the woods to give one of the hunters a prophecy. To be honest, the last oracle did the undead walk a lot better, considering that she was, well, undead.

Rachel's eyes were faintly glowing green, and she didn't seem to be aware of where she was. She looked around and then locked eyes on Arthur and flung herself at him. From what Annabeth had said about her, she had a lot of practice at this. She looked at him with desperate eyes and began speaking in the voice of the Oracle.

_Three shall go to the most magical place,_

_To find the staff of Hades disgrace,_

_And defeat love's greatest fear,_

_To Athena's son, Janus draws near._

Now don't think badly of me, but I ran, and kept running until I reached my cabin. I carefully opened the door so it wouldn't make a sound. I almost expected Lou Ellen to be waiting for me, but no, she was sound asleep. I tiptoed to my bed and fell to sleep, wondering what I was going to do when I woke up.

**Toa Lapaka: Thanks for reading. Now to those who answered our last question, thanks for replying.**

**eMMeD: But unfortunately, only one of you got it right. Congrats Anonymous, who got both of us...**

** Toa Lapaka: EMMED! one of us. eMMed is a daughter of Athena, and I'm a son of Hephaestus (as all self respecting Bionicle lovers are)**

** eMMeD: *eye roll* as our next contest, what do you think the Arthur's prophecy means?**

**Toa Lapaka: and shout outs to someonefromouterspace and anonymous for being only the only ones to enter challenge 1.  
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	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:  
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**eMMeD: Hmm... now who's late?**

**ToaLapaka: Sorry about the wait, demigod training's been hectic.**

**eMMeD: Discreet. Okay, so once again neither of us are Rick Riordan, now welcome to chapter three:  
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**Arthur-3**

**A Sibling Thing**

[Good job Helen, this was supposed to be Rod's chapter! Now you've gone and confused everyone and it's up to me to explain things!]

Of course, Rod was very excited about having a new sibling. He actually tried to offer to give him a tour of the camp, but Annabeth didn't see him. She sent him on a tour with Will Solace, and the blonde kid with Drew (which I question the wisdom of), and gave the girl a tour herself. An enthusiastic Rod and I went back to our daily activities.

New kids always put me in bad moods, because since I've joined Athena cabin, Annabeth has been trying to make me give each of them tours. I barely missed this one by ducking behind Rod. Something about 'getting to know the new kids' and 'making more friends'.

[Helen: What is this sorcery!]

She didn't get the fact that I didn't want new friends, especially not high-strung ADHD friends who just found out they may have super powers and want to try them out.

Anyways, I got through the day without any major problems, until after the campfire. We had just discovered the truth about the new kids. The blonde guy was one of Zeus's kids, and apparently swearing on the river sticks doesn't mean what it used to. The girl was a daughter of Aphrodite, which seemed to make Drew mad. I happened to have my mom's 'I'm sorry I completely forgot about you for fourteen-years ' gift on—a small olive ring that reads minds when you twist the black stone—and can't help but hear Drew's mental groan along with a long rant about how this was horrible.

After the campfire was over, everyone headed to their cabins. I crawled into my bunk as everyone crowded around the door waiting for Annabeth. Everyone was eager to hear about what happened, especially since it pertained to everyone's favorite demigod— Percy Jackson. When Annabeth finally walked in the door, she was barraged with several 'what happened' and 'where's Percy'. Even I kinda felt sorry for her.

"Please, guys, let me get to my bunk," she said.

"You heard her!" Malcolm said in his patented second-in-charge-big-brother voice, "She won't say anything until we're all in our own bunks." He looked over to Annabeth, and she said a silent 'thank you'. Everyone moved to their bunks and got ready for the story like five-year-olds at preschool. Annabeth got to her own bunk and took a deep breath.

"Well you all know about my message from Hera to go the Grand Canyon," She began. There was a collective 'yes' among the rest of the Athena kids, as I mumbled "How couldn't we? That's all you talked about yesterday," low enough that no one could hear me.

"Well, when I got there, Jason, Leo, and Piper were there, but not Percy," she lowered her head sadly.

"Maybe those three know where Percy is," said Lillian, one of the younger Athena kids.

"I've already asked," Annabeth said, "but none of them knew they were demi-gods, much less who Percy is. But I still hope that we'll find Percy."

"Unless he's dead," I said. I don't know why I said it, but I had been in a bad mood that day, and was tired of hearing Percy, Percy, Percy.

"Shut up, Psyches," Malcolm said, backed up by the rest of the cabin.

"Percy's not dead," Annabeth said, surprisingly calm. "Grover would know if something happened to him."

"Unless their psychic link—or whatever it's called—broke. Sounds just like what Hera would do. And seriously, you trusted her?" I responded. Now the words were flowing out of my mouth, as if that single tangent of "Percy's dead" grew a mind of its own and was now controlling my words. Annabeth took in a deep breath; she was either trying to keep tears in or from strangling me. Malcolm looked about the same as he usually does—at least around me—murderous.

"Psyches! You are out of line!" Malcolm bellowed at me. He gave Annabeth a quick look, but those two were nearly as close as Percy and Grover emotionally. He probably just learned every thought in her mind in two seconds.

"Out of line? I haven't even started!" the words were picking up speed, and there was no way for me to stop them, even if had I wanted to. "The goddess freaking hates you, and you trust a vision she sends you? Does this sound wise to any of you all?" I got dirty looks from everyone around. Little Lillian even glared at me. "You're always yelling at me for not being 'wise', but then you go and make enemies with someone who can make your life a living Tartarus! You know what? She probably took Percy just to get back to at you!"

That was too much for her. She ran out of the room, tears streaming from her eyes. Malcolm looked at me like 'how could you', and then said, "You know what, Psyches, tonight, you can sleep somewhere else." He ran out the door after Annabeth.

"Fine," I said. I tramped out the door, slamming it behind me.

There was one place I always went when I was mad. The woods. It seems insane, but if you know where you're going, you can avoid most of the monsters. It's a good place to get your anger out.

I had to be careful not to be seen because the Harpies would be out soon, so I tried to sneak around. [Haha, Helen, your impressions are _so_ funny]. I navigated my usual path through the trees and underbrush and came to my usual tree. If you were to look very hard at the tree, you would see several carvings in it, which if the gods were to find, would get me into a lot of trouble.

I was so mad at this point that I felt like chopping down a tree (which I don't recommend). I wanted to hurt something, anything, even myself, but I was a bit too 'wise' to do that. I thought about my mom's gift and my anger at the gods. I wrenched the ring from my finger, throwing it on the ground. Maybe my mom saw that, if she did, I hoped it hurt. I was about to climb the tree and make myself a bed on one of the sturdier branches when I heard rustling somewhere behind me.

"Who's there?" I called. Quickly discarding my original plan, I frantically searched the ground for my ring, hoping to know what was coming at me before it got there. _Wait to go, Psyches, you went without your mommy's help for a whole five seconds—that's gotta be a record, _I berated myself as I looked for my ring.

I rummaged across the forest floor, feeling everything from leaves to discarded gum wrappers before I felt the cool surface of my ring. I shoved it on my finger and stood up, slowing rotating it, and peered into the darkness. My ring focused in on a mind and I heard two familiar voices at once. _Seven demigods answer the call, _thought Rachel Elizabeth Dare. But it wasn't her voice, at least not her voice alone. It was like a weird fusion of her voice and the oracle's. I sighed in relief and called "Rachel."

She came into eye range doing some sort of zombie walk.

[Yes I know you already covered this part, Helen, but I'm still doing it.]

Her eyes looked sort of like fizzed out electric sockets, shining green, but sort of shorting here and there. As soon as she locked eyes on me, she grabbed on to me. Before I could even react, she started reciting the prophecy.

After that she passed out.

So there I was with Rachel passed out in my arms. I didn't have any idea what to do. Her cave was way too far for me to carry her to, and I didn't think she would appreciate me dragging her up a mountain. I was a bit far from anything. I was about to just to hoist her up into the tree when she woke up.

"Where am I," she muttered.

"The woods," I answered.

"Ugh, I get oracle hijacked twice in one day. Did I hurt you?"

"Well, a few nail marks in my arms but-"

"Why does the oracle like grabbing people?" She said, interrupting me.

I was about to ask what, but then thought better of it. I simply asked "Do you need any help?"

"No, I think I can make it," she said as she stood up. She took one step forward then fell backwards. I barely caught her. "On second thought," She said while I held her up by her arms, "I think the oracle twisted my ankle while forcing me to zombie walk."

I helped Rachel back to her cave, only causing a few more injuries on the way. As I was about to turn to head back to my tree, Rachel called back to me.

"You're Arthur, Annabeth's brother, right."

I stopped in my tracks and turned around.

"She likes you, you do know that. She thinks you can do great things. She just wishes she you would see that."

"Thanks," I mumbled. _Great,_ I thought, _I just made the only sibling that doesn't hate me cry._

"Oh, and you might want to see Chiron about the prophecy I gave you. The oracle chose you for a reason."

"I'll think about it."

I headed down the mountain and up into my tree. I grabbed the blanket I had stuffed into the hollow part of the tree. I fell to sleep thinking about what I was going to do the next morning.

[No Helen, I didn't steal that from you!]

The next morning I headed straight for the forge and waited for Rod to show up to ask his advice about the prophecy. When I came to his customary table, instead of the half-finished projects that usually laid on his table, I found charred pieces of metal and broken parts. When he finally showed up, he was a bit shocked to see me.

"Looks like you tried to beat the curse," I said while studying a burnt hilt.

"And the curse is winning," He said ruefully.

"Hey, depression is my thing!"

"What are you even doing here? Athena cabin has arts and crafts first today."

"I need to talk to you…" I faltered in telling him. Did I really need to include Rod in this? I mean, maybe the quest was just the oracle playing a trick on me. The gods loved messing with me, why not the oracle?

"About what?" Rod asked, a worried look on his face.

"About… a prophecy I was given last night."

I told him about what had happened the night before, from me heading to the woods to the prophecy, purposefully leaving out the part about me being kicked out. After I was done, he looked thoughtfully at his project bench.

"Why were you sleeping in the woods?" he asked.

"Just felt like it…"

"You felt like sleeping in the woods during winter when the temperatures go as low as ten degrees Fahrenheit?"

"That's not what I came to talk to you about. I came to ask you what to do about the prophecy."

"Well you need to see Chiron of course. He can tell you what it means."

"Oh yeah, I never thought of that," I said sarcastically.

"Then why did you come to me?"

"I don't know. I thought you would be helpful."

"In other words, you don't want to tell Chiron that you got kicked out of your cabin."

"Yeah, pretty much." Rod is pretty good at putting two and two together, except when it comes to social matters. [You know what I mean Rod.]

"Well, since Chiron is out of the question, why not talk to Helen?" Rod suggested.

"Huh?"

"Most magical place," Rod reminded, "sounds like you need a Hecate kid."

"But… why Helen?" I said, trying to keep myself from smirking at him.

"Do you want to go with Lou Ellen?" Rod asked. We grimaced at each other. I'm pretty sure Lou Ellen hates us. I know I think a lot of people hate me, but a lot of people haven't turned me into a newt and attempted to use my eyes in one of her potions. Lou Ellen has, but I think the time she turned Rod into a chicken was funnier.

We walked down to the arena where Hecate cabin was supposed to be having sword practice, but when we got there it looked more like "let's turn celestial bronze into jello" time. Chiron frowns upon this waste of weaponry, but the Hecate kids are good about not eating there sword molds and turning them back into celestial bronze before Chiron can see it.

Helen wasn't there. "Who do you wanna ask?" I asked.

"How about the kid farthest from Lou Ellen," Rod said pointing to a kid sitting against the far wall of the arena.

"You mean the kid eating the jello mace?" I asked skeptically.

"Yeah him," Rod said.

"Sounds legit," I muttered as we walked over to the kid.

"Hey, Nick," Rod called.

"Are you sure that's not Harry?" I whispered to Rod.

"Nah, Harry has the sideburns," Rod murmured back.

"Oh."

"Me?" Nick asked, putting down his half-eaten jello mace just long enough to utter that syllable.

"Yeah, you," I said, "Where's Helen?"

"Lou Ellen doesn't like us talking about Helen," Nick said, looking over at Lou Ellen quickly.

"What does Lou Ellen say about eating the weapons?" Rod asked. Nick looked down in shame and even I almost felt sorry for the little guy.

"Helen went to talk to Chiron," he answered quietly, "She said something about a prophecy and then left before Lou Ellen could make her come with us."

"Well, looks like we're going to Chiron's after all," Rod said. I groaned. "Come on," Rod said, pulling me by my arm, "Thanks for your help, Nick," Rod called as we left.

Rod and I walked to the Big House, and all the way there I could only think about Lou Ellen turning Nick into a lizard for helping us. I don't know how she gets away with this stuff. I mean, she steals people's noses almost daily. Just ask Miranda who once had to go three hours without the ability to smell.

"What prophecy do you think Helen got?" Rod asked me suddenly.

"No idea, but it sounds like Rachel had a busy night last night," I responded as we reached the Big House's front porch. Rod beat me there but stood at the door trying to decide whether it was prudent to knock. I just walked right in.

"Ah and here is the illusive Mr. Psyches," Chiron said almost as soon as we entered the house. He and Helen were standing right next to a leopard head that snarled at us. "I hear you spent another nice night under the stars. What was it you did this time? Shave Malcolm's head again?"

"I keep telling you that that wasn't me," I said indignantly, but Chiron wasn't being accusatory; he was actually smiling like Malcolm losing all his hair was a good joke (which in my opinion it was even if I wasn't the one who did it).

"Yes camp pranks are too happy go lucky for Psyches," Helen remarked.

"Helen tells me you had a visit from the oracle last night," Chiron said.

"I don't know how Helen would know that," I said, throwing Helen a glare. She just shrugged it off.

"In any case, Arthur, it looks like you have quest, and you've already picked both your companions," Chiron responded.

"One companion," I inserted.

"_Arthur,_" Rod hissed.

"Fine, I know both of my companions," I said. "Anyone know where Lou Ellen is?" Helen gave me a scathing look.

"Yes, I'm sure she will love the opportunity to return you to your proper form: a newt," Helen told me.

"Now!" Chiron interrupted forcefully, "we need to understand what the prophecy is talking about."

"I bet I know what the first line means," Rod inserted. I was probably the only one who heard the jest in his voice.

"Really, where?" Chiron asked.

Rod turned to me and said in his best announcer's voice, "Arthur Psyches, you just won the Super Bowl. What are you going to do next?" My face broke into a grin.

"I'm going to Disneyworld!" I announced. Rod and I started to do chest-bumps and making fake touchdowns. Helen thought for a moment.

"You know, that's not a bad idea," Helen said finally. Rod and I froze mid chest-bump and turned to her. "What?"

"You've gotta be kidding me, Helen," I said.

"No, it really _is _the most magical place on earth," Helen said, "It literally oozes with magic."

"Are you telling me that Walt Disney was a demigod?" I asked her.

"No, his dad was a pastor and _married_. Get your mind out of the Demigod gutter," Helen reprimanded. "They built Disneyworld on top of the fountain of youth."

"Well, it sound like we're off to Disney world in search of a magical stick," Rod said, "this doesn't sound crazy at all."

"But whose stick is it?" I asked.

"Well, Hades' disgrace could mean a lot of people," Chiron said, "but the only one who is famous and had a staff was Asclepius."

"Oh, the dude who raised people from the dead with snake-herbs?" Rod asked.

"Isn't he like a constellation—Ophiuchus?" Helen imputed.

"Actually, he was made God of Medicine and followed after his father, Apollo," Chiron explained. "This was done mainly to make everyone happy."

"Oh, I get it," I said, "Asclepius gets immortality in exchange for no more dead people returning to earth, and Apollo doesn't lose his favorite kid."

"Exactly," Chiron said, "but his staff was hidden after he became a god in order to keep others from using its magic. It was safe-guarded at an ancient fount."

"So basically, we're supposed to get it before the bad guys do," Rod simplified.

"Basically," Chiron said.

"What about the rest of the prophecy?" Helen inserted.

"That, I am afraid, you will have to discover for yourself," Chiron said, "now, though, you must gather your things. We can provide you with plane and Disneyworld tickets."

"Woah, that's expensive," Rod exclaimed.

"We've had a prosperous strawberry season. Argus will be prepared to take you to the airport in an hour. You should go pack."

"If my siblings will let me into the cabin," I muttered.

"Good luck, demigods," Chiron bid us goodbye.

**eMMeD: Next up is Rod's chapter, and the only winner from our last contest was a certain anon... who might have already knew the answers because they have read our planner- ahem, my sister Caiti**

**ToaLapaka: Yeah... Caiti... anyways, this time we're not really not having a contest, but what mythical characters/creatures would you want our three heroes to meet/face. We have most set out already, but we might be able to put two or three of these into the story, at least as cameos.**

**eMMeD: Thanks for reading, and as always, please review  
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	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry, eMMed won't be able to comment on this one. Anyways, sorry for the huge gaps, I'm trying to work on it more frequently, but with school and my own laziness it hasn't worked so far.**

**Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan, though it takes me about as long to post a new chapter as it does for him to make a new book.**

**Rod-4**

**The Creepy Plane Lady**

As I walked to my cabin, all I could think about was the unsaid "you'll need it," at the end of Chiron's sentence. I started packing the items I would need for the quest. Only the essentials: Clothes, tools, and my cross bow. Clothes, well, I couldn't walk around naked. Tools, you never know. Crossbow, I hoped the mist would hide that from the security at the airport. I knew that a lot of demi-gods had taken weapons on planes, but I never knew how they got them through the metal detectors. Maybe the mist helped; maybe celestial bronze didn't count as metal. I didn't know, I guess I would find out. I ran to past the enchanted tree to where Argus and Helen were waiting for me.

"Helen, how did you get down here so fast?" I asked.

"Magic," she said, opening up her hands and wiggling her fingers like a cheerleader at a pep-rally.

"No really."

"Lou Ellen packed for me," she replied. "She said she couldn't wait for me to leave."

"How did she know about the quest?"

"It's Lou Ellen. It would be more surprising if she didn't know. Anyway, where's Psyches? This is his quest."

"Maybe I should go looking for him." As if on cue, Arthur came stomping down the hill with a duffel bag with clothes sticking out of it. As he came closer, I noticed a huge cut on his arm.

"What took you so long Psyches?" Helen asked. Arthur thrust a note into her hand and threw his duffel bag into the back of the van. Helen raised her eye brows and handed me the note. It read:

_Ha-ha Arthur,_

_Good luck getting your stuff now._

_Signed…_

The last time I had seen so many signatures was on a picture of the Declaration of Independence in my history book.

"What did they do?" I asked.

"Locked me out," he said abruptly.

"But I thought you learned how to pick locks after last years… incident." I said. Helen looked at me curiously, but I mouthed 'don't ask'.

"I did, but they hid all my stuff."

"Is that what took you so long?" Helen asked. "Looking for your stuff?"

"No, that would've taken me hours."

"Then what's in the duffel bag?" She asked.

"Let's just say a little retribution for the torment I endured in the Hermes cabin."

"You stole from the thieves?" I was shocked at his audacity.

"_Technically_ these are my clothes, well some of them. They stole them last week."

"What did you do to tick them off Psyches?" Helen asked.

Arthur shot her a glance that said _really?_ "It's Hermes's cabin. Do they _need_ a reason?"

"Good point."

Argus made a grunting noise and pointed at his watch.

"Okay," Arthur said, "Let's get this quest on the road."

We piled into the van which had more than enough room in it for all three of us plus a couple of dozen crates of strawberries. Arthur took a window seat, and since Helen didn't want to sit next to him, I sat in the middle and Helen got a window seat. As we pulled out, down the hill, no one said a word. As we pulled onto the country road, no one said a word. As we pulled into the city, Helen coughed. That was the most exciting part of our trip. We were all too nervous about the quest to say anything. Helen conjured up little balls of blue energy that she moved between her fingers which puffed out after a few seconds. As soon as they puffed out, Helen would replace it with a new blue ball, but her face would look frustrated. Arthur looked out the window, staring at cars, and twisting his owl ring. I sat there fiddling with my fingers, wanting to build something. I was still wondering about how we were going to hide our weapons and tools. I reached over and tapped Argus on the shoulder. He didn't look at me, well not with his face. The eyes on his arms turned to look at me and he made a grumbling noise that told me he noticed me.

"Uhm, how are we going to hide our weapons from the security? Is it the mist or something?"

He brought his head up, slowly opening his mouth, as if saying 'oh'. He pointed behind me, in the middle of the crates of strawberries to a large duffel bag. I grabbed it up and looked it over. It was a regular duffel bag, dark green with lots of pockets. Argus pointed at my stuff and then to the bag.

"So we put our stuff in the bag?"

"It's enchanted," Arthur spoke as Argus's translator. "It's infused with mist or something. The metal detectors and x-rays will show random stuff instead of our weapons."

"How do you know? You've never been on a mission before, Psyches," Helen asked. As a response, he simply raised his hand and pointed to his ring. Helen gave me a confused/ 'is he crazy?' look. Then it dawned on me that she didn't know about Arthur's ring.

"It's a gift from his mom," I whispered to her. "It lets him read people's minds."

"Yeah," Arthur said bemusedly, "Her way of saying 'sorry I forgot all about you.'"

"So wait, you can read my mind?" Helen asked.

"Yes, I can, and no, I can't do mind tricks."

Helen raised her hand with two fingers extended and swiped it in front of his face saying monotonously, "These are my thoughts, keep out of them, Psyches."

"Oh, don't worry; I try to keep as far from your thoughts as possible."

_I wonder what she thinks about_, I thought.

"Trust me you don't, Rod," Arthur said sticking his tongue out in distaste, as if he could taste thoughts and Helen's tasted like eye of newt.

"You know, I think I should feel offended right now, but I don't know why," Helen said raising eyebrow and expecting us to explain. I looked over at Arthur and urgently thought '_You are the 'wise' guy; you make up a story and make it good.'_

"Oh, never mind," Arthur said, looking back out his window. The rest of our trip was spent with Helen continually begging to know what I was thinking. I still think her cough was more interesting.

Argus pulled up in front of the airport as we shoved in the last of our equipment. He passed Arthur back a leather wallet which contained enough money to get onto the plane and buy tickets to Disney. He waved us good bye as we entered the airport.

"Listen," Arthur said as we entered the line to get our tickets, "If anyone asks us any questions, you let me take care of it, and keep your big mouth shut, Helen."

Helen gave him a look of distaste and said, "I elect Rod as our spokesperson."

Arthur glared, "Helen…" I intercepted the conversation before it became _another _argument.

"We don't need a spokesperson," I said, "If anyone asks, we are on our way to visit family for the holidays in Florida, and our parents went up last week." That was the end of the conversation, and then we went off to get the tickets.

As we went through security, no one asked us why we were parent-free or what Camp Halfblood (we were all still wearing the orange shirts) was. That was one of those things about New York that differed from my hometown. New York didn't care. In fact, the only question they asked us was whether or not we had any fluids. Helen grasped the duffel bag a bit tighter, knowing she had a stash of potions hidden in there. She said no, but I could tell that she was nervous about this magical gym bag. When we actually got to the bag check part of security, I had to stifle a laugh. Instead of pushing us up against the wall and slapping cuffs on our wrists, he simply looked at Helen and asked, "These are all yours, right young lady."

"Oh no," She answered, "It's all of ours."

He looked between Arthur and me quizzically then grabbed the bag and thrust it into my arms, kinda forcefully. Arthur was messing with his ring when his face turned bright red. I've still never gotten the nerve to ask him what he heard.

When we got through security, they let us onto the plane early. "Your uncle told us all about it, hun," a nice female steward informed me as we were ushered onto the plane. I couldn't hide my curiosity, so I looked up at her.

"Our uncle?" I asked. "Which uncle?"

"Why, you're uncle Chiron of course."

"Of course," I smiled. I walked onto the plane behind Helen and Arthur, but I was not expecting what I saw next. Sitting in seat H 103 at the window seat was a skinny, pale lady. She looked haggard, but not really old despite her hair was gray and deep stress lines on her forehead. Her hands fidgeted and her eyes darted back and forth as if she was expecting something.

I turned back to the Stewardess. "Is she supposed to be on the plane yet?" I asked with a nervous glance back to the woman.

"Yes, sweetie, she has special permission, too." I looked at Arthur with an inquisitively. He shrugged and looked at his ticket. Arthur then took his seat on G 101, across from the woman. I followed his example and examined my ticket. Seat G 102. _Oh great, _I thought,_ sitting right across from the crazy woman._ But where was Helen going to sit? There were only two seats in Row G. I walked next to her and whispered, "Where are you sitting?"

She showed me her ticket. Seat H 104, right _next_ to the crazy lady.

"I'll take the seat if you want me to," I offered chivalrously.

"No, I'm fine," she assured me.

She put her baggage up on the rack, sat down timidly next to the woman, and gave a nervous wave, trying to be friendly. The woman looked at her and her pale grey eyes glowed bright green.

"The land is against you and your kind!" She screeched, grabbing Helen by the arm. "Legends come to life to serve her, death's gate swings wide! Any interaction with them will bring only trouble!"

"Get off!" Helen screamed. She tried to push the woman off of her, but she only tightened her grip. Arthur and I jumped up to help her. Of course the stewardess would walk in right then, and with the three of us against the one lady, things didn't look good. The woman acting like we were attacking her didn't help either.

"They attacked me!" the woman screeched as she pulled away from us.

"No, we didn't," Arthur said, "that's a lie!"

"That's it," the stewardess said, "you three, off now."

"But she-" Helen started, but the stewardess obviously didn't want to hear any of it.

"Off!" she pointed out the door.

We grabbed or bags and walked out the door.

"Stay away from snakes, Arthur," the crazy lady called after us. Arthur cursed her out in ancient Greek. Somehow I did not think we'd ever be allowed back at this airport.

**Challenge: let's see if anyone can guess who the crazy lady is in this chapter is.  
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